Self, Glen wrote on 25/04/2005 15:23:
Shahzad Chohan wrote on 25/04/2005 13:58:
Hi
I'm a little confused, could someone please help me explain what is a terminal, what is it for and why do we need it. Why are there different types of terminals? Also where does the term vt100 or vt102 fit in to this?
Thanks for your help
Shahzad
A terminal is the piece of hardware (keyboard & monitor) where you type
in your commands to the computer and read it's responses.
Famous standard ones were the models VT-52, VT-100, VT-200 etc by DEC, I
was using them up to a few years ago attached to some Alpha systems. As
PCs became prevalent software was written to connect the pc to the
backend computers. The most common protocols were those used by the vt52
and vt100 as they were ubiquitous. The term computer console was another
name for the terminal hardware.
In high quality operating systems (VMS,UNIX,Linux..etc) you can connect
to the computer via a communication port to control the system. Normally
when you connect to a system via an emulator the screen (window) will
look like the one on a console from the 70's.
When you are at the command line in Linux you are in the same mode as
using a terminal and connecting to your box via the RS232 port. Nowdays
single users rarely need to use a terminal as the interface is in the
same box. I really should get rid of the vt100s in my garage.
<top posting fixed>
I'm sure he's got enough for his homework now... ;-)
Rob
